After My Rebirth, I Ended Up Happily Ever After with the Saintess - Chapter 2

The weary groan of the wooden door was abruptly cut short, replaced by an even rougher impact.

“Bang!”

The already simple door bolt snapped, and the two dilapidated wooden doors were violently pushed open, slamming against the side walls before bouncing back slightly, letting out a lingering, mournful creak.

Blinding daylight poured in from outside, silhouetting two arrogant figures and illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air inside. The one leading the charge was a burly, round-waisted older woman with the surname Wang. Her face was fleshy, the corners of her mouth habitually turned down, and she looked at people with three parts insolence. Trailing behind her was a shrewd-looking male servant named Li San, who rubbed his hands together, his eyes leering as they darted around the room, finally settling on the frail figure on the bed.

“Tsk, she’s not dead yet, after all!” Granny Wang stood with her hands on her hips, her spittle almost hitting the bed. “You little waste, are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me calling? Hurry up and hand over what Young Master Lang wants! Don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!”

Li San chimed in with his own sinister sneer: “Exactly, what are you lying there pretending to be a dead dog for? Young Master Lang is merciful; he only broke a few of your bones. If you don’t get smart, next time we’ll just throw you to the wild dogs in the back mountain!”

Vile language filled the small room. If it had been the Ye Li of the past, she would have long been trembling, crying, and begging for mercy.

However, the girl on the bed lay quietly, not even fluttering an eyelid. The intense coughing seemed to have drained all her strength; her breathing was faint, and her face was as white as paper. Only the eyes, which had just opened, were unfathomably deep, devoid of emotion, like two pools of frozen ice, coldly “staring” at the cobwebs on the ceiling.

This kind of disregard was more infuriating to the two malicious servants than any act of defiance.

Granny Wang felt her authority challenged. She took a heavy stride forward with her thick legs: “Heh! You really think you’re somebody, don’t you? Let this old woman drag you up!”

Just as her filthy hand was about to touch the worn cotton quilt—

Ye Li moved!

It wasn’t her body that moved; her body still lay weakly, as if even moving a finger was a struggle.

It was her right hand that moved!

The hand that had been weakly resting on the edge of the bed had, at some point, gripped a sharp, half-foot-long wooden splinter snapped from the edge of the hard plank bed! The movement was so fast it was a mere blur!

There was no shout, no warning, only the most direct and deadly action!

“Pfft!”

An extremely faint, yet teeth-grittingly dull sound.

Granny Wang’s pig-like shriek instantly erupted. She violently snatched back her hand, only to see the palm, near the wrist, viciously pierced by the rough wooden shard! Blood instantly gushed out, dripping onto the filthy floor. The shard was lodged between the bones, causing agonizing pain.

“Ah! My hand! My hand! You little wench! How dare you…” Granny Wang’s face contorted with pain, surprise, and fury. She hadn’t even seen how the other person struck!

Li San was also stunned by the sudden turn of events and instinctively took half a step back.

It was then that Ye Li extremely slowly and with great difficulty propped up her upper body with her elbow. Every subtle movement pulled at the wound in her chest, causing fine cold sweat to bead on her forehead and making her breathing more rapid. But she maintained her posture with sheer willpower.

She raised her eyes, her gaze finally falling upon the two vile servants.

That gaze was cold, lifeless, and devoid of any human warmth—it was more like looking at two piles of soon-to-be rotten meat.

“Too noisy.”

Her voice was hoarse and dry, frail due to her severe injuries, yet it carried a strange, chilling penetration and coldness that made one’s scalp tingle.

“You want something?” She softly repeated those three words, a faint, chillingly sharp curve pulling at the corner of her mouth. Paired with her pale face and dark eyes, it gave her a strange, eerie look. “Fine.”

Granny Wang and Li San froze, not expecting her to suddenly relent.

Then they heard her continue in that maddeningly slow and clear tone: “Tell Ye Lang… to crawl over himself… and kowtow in apology. Perhaps… if I’m in a good mood… I’ll consider… rewarding him with it.”

What?!

Granny Wang and Li San couldn’t believe their ears!

Tell Young Master Lang to crawl over and kowtow in apology? Reward him? Had this waste gone mad? Or had the beating damaged her brain?

“You! You…” Granny Wang was shaking with rage, but the severe pain in her hand left her stammering and incoherent.

Li San, being a man, followed astonishment with shame and anger. To be injured and frightened by a waste he normally bullied at will was a deep blow to his ego. He sneered menacingly: “Little wench, looks like you haven’t been beaten enough! Today, this old man will properly teach you a lesson on behalf of your parents!”

With that, he rolled up his sleeves and strode forward, his large, fan-like palm swinging toward Ye Li’s pale cheek! The whoosh of air indicated there was no restraint in the blow.

If the strike landed, given Ye Li’s current state, she might truly lose half her life.

The onlookers outside—a few collateral family members and servants drawn by the commotion—held their breath, some even turning away in discomfort. They seemed to already hear the crisp slap and the girl’s painful wail.

However, Ye Li’s eyes remained utterly calm.

In the final instant before the palm fell, her body shifted inward by a mere half an inch at an angle that seemed physically impossible!

Simultaneously, her left foot, seemingly weak, just happened to extend slightly from under the quilt. Her toes curled, precisely hooking the edge of a slightly loose floor tile where Li San’s foot had landed in his hasty rush!

All of this happened in a flash of lightning!

Li San, striking with all his might and his center of gravity pitched forward, completely failed to notice the insignificant obstacle underfoot. He also hadn’t anticipated the target would evade him—in his memory, this waste only cried and endured a beating.

“Clap!” The slap missed, grazing Ye Li’s hairline, the resulting gust of wind stinging her cheek.

At the same time, “Ouch!” Li San’s foot tripped abruptly. His body lost all balance, and he tumbled forward like a rolling gourd!

And the direction he fell was right toward the corner of the hard plank bed!

“Thud!!”

A skull-grinding dull sound, accompanied by Li San’s more agonizing scream. He had slammed his forehead squarely into the hard wooden bed corner. His vision instantly went black, blood streamed from his temple, and he collapsed to the floor, reduced to mere groans.

Silence!

Dead silence!

Inside and outside the house, everyone who witnessed the scene was dumbfounded, as if they had seen a ghost!

What happened?

That waste, Ye Li, who endured beatings and curses, had not only injured Granny Wang with a wooden splinter but had also… also caused the strong Li San to smash his own head until it bled?

She hadn’t even moved much! Just a slight dodge, a subtle extension of her foot… that was it?

How was this possible?! Was it a coincidence?

But if it was a coincidence, then what about the look in her eyes now…

Everyone’s eyes involuntarily refocused on the girl on the bed.

She was still leaning weakly, her chest rising and falling gently, her face pale, even panting slightly from the effort of those minute movements, making her appear even more fragile.

But her gaze was sharp, like a newly quenched cold blade. It slowly swept over the wailing Granny Wang and the groaning Li San on the floor, and finally, it landed on the shocked and uncertain faces of the onlookers outside the door.

Anyone whose eyes were met by that gaze involuntarily felt a chill creep up their spine, and not a single person dared to meet her eyes!

“Scram.”

One word, hoarse and low, but carrying an unquestionable command and a chilling murderous intent that made hearts pound.

Granny Wang clutched the wound on her hand, looked at the bleeding Li San on the ground, and then met those emotionless eyes. For the first time, she felt a genuine fear deep in her heart. That wasn’t the gaze of a waste; it was more like… the gaze of a vengeful spirit crawled out from hell!

She didn’t even dare utter another threat. Trembling, she stumbled and scrambled to pull the still-dazed Li San, fleeing the small house in a state of utter disarray, not even bothering to wipe away the blood on the floor.

The crowd outside the door also awoke from their daze, scattering quickly as if avoiding a plague. Yet, every face bore a look of disbelief, horror, and intense curiosity, and whispering quickly spread.

Silence returned to the small house, leaving only the faint smell of blood lingering in the air.

Ye Li slowly released her grip on the wooden shard, which clattered to the floor. Her arm was trembling. This brief confrontation and the effort of maintaining her imposing presence had nearly exhausted the last of this body’s strength.

Cold sweat soaked her inner garments, and waves of sharp pain radiated from her chest.

But the icy resolve in her eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

Weak, too weak.

This body simply couldn’t support any of her refined combat techniques, and even maintaining consciousness was a struggle. Everything just now was nothing more than an illusion created by her superior battle awareness, precise judgment, and sheer ruthlessness. If those two had been a little more vicious, or if there had been one more person, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

She must become strong, and quickly!

An intense sense of crisis and a burning desire for revenge seared in her heart.

She closed her eyes and began meticulously searching through the fragmented, dark memories of the original owner. The original owner had lived most of her life in humiliation and fear, and her memories were mostly gray. But it seemed… a long time ago, while avoiding a chase, she had stumbled into an extremely remote area on the back mountain…

The air there, she vaguely recalled, felt exceptionally cool? It had soothed her bruised body a little at the time? And, she seemed to have seen a small plant with three leaves that glowed faintly? But she had been too scared at the time and quickly ran away.

This memory fragment was blurry and almost forgotten by the original owner.

But now, under the perception of Ye Li, the former Supreme, this became an extremely crucial clue!

Abnormally cool air? A faintly glowing three-leaf plant?

Ye Li’s heart rate subtly quickened.

That was very likely… a Yin-attribute spiritual herb! Moreover, the place where it grew might have an extremely weak spiritual vein or a special convergence of earth energy!

For her Supreme Yin constitution—a useless body—and the fragment of the Wheel of Samsara Mirror deep within her soul that required nourishing Yin energy, that place might be the only hope she had right now!

A preliminary plan began to slowly take shape in her calm mind.